AT THE MEAC TOURNAMENT

Coppin State coach Ron (Fang) Mitchell sat alone in a corner of alocker room in Hill Field House at Morgan State in Baltimore,staring a hole through the wall and wondering what terrible deedshe had committed in a previous life. His players and assistantcoaches were gone now, and so were all their big plans. They hadridden a 17-game winning streak, the nation's longest, into thechampionship game of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC)tournament last Saturday, and they were expecting to ride rightinto the field of 64 in the NCAAs. This was supposed to be theiryear, their chance to prove at last that they could be more in thenational tournament than just a lovable tuneup for a top-seededteam.

In the end there seemed to be just one area in which theseCoppin kids needed work: picking the right spot for a letdown.North Carolina A&T outplayed the Eagles in the final minutes ofthe frantic MEAC title game, and the Aggies slipped away with a66-64 victory. It was Coppin's first loss in two months, and itsure put a damper on a terrific 20-9 season. The MEAC works theold-fashioned way: It's one of about 17 conferences in which thewinner moves on to the NCAAs and everyone else is out of luck.

Even within the flesh-eating confines of college basketball, itdidn't seem fair. A&T needed the win just to finish over .500(15-14), but the Aggies still get the bid. The best Coppin canhope for is a spot in the NIT, not much consolation for a teamthat has won 47 of its last 48 regular-season conference games.``I don't want to sound like I'm crying or anything,'' saidMitchell, ``but they really shouldn't play this tournament.''

Mitchell looked like a boxer who went down in the 12th round whileleading on all three cards. And this wasn't the first time he hadbeen the victim of a late KO. His Eagles had lost by a point toeighth-seeded Morgan State in the first round of the MEACtournament last year after going undefeated in the conferenceregular season. This year they came apart in crunch time againstA&T, a team they had destroyed just two weeks earlier.

Now the Aggies not only get the MEAC's bid to the NCAAs for thesecond straight year, they'll also get most of the money thatgoes with it. North Carolina A&T will keep half of the NCAAtournament payoff, a quarter will go to the conference, and theother quarter will be divided evenly among all the MEAC schools.Last year's MEAC tournament win earned A&T $128,000, accordingto athletic director Willie Burden.

``There's just so much pressure when you make it all depend onone game,'' said Mitchell. ``It's like you just discount all youaccomplished during the year. I wish we could be like Penn[which is a member of the Ivy League, one of only threeconferences that don't have a postseason tournament]. Win duringthe season, and you're in.''

That's just not going to happen, of course. The MEAC tournament istoo good, and the high stakes only serve to make it more intense.Who cares who wins the Big East tournament this weekend? Whoremembers a week later? When a conference sends as many as ahalf-dozen teams to the NCAAs, the league tournament has a way ofbecoming exhibition season.

The MEAC doesn't have that problem. The players don't treat thistournament as if it were a matter of life or death. They play asif it's more important than that. ``It's as simple as this,''says A&T guard Tyrone Brice. ``You win, you're in the Big Dance.You lose, you watch on TV. That's a lot of motivation for teamslike us.''

Brice was so excited 10 minutes before the championship game thathe could be seen in line for the facilities in the public men'sroom on the first floor of Hill Field House. No one would havenoticed if it hadn't been for the fact that he was in uniform. Inthis conference the stars are not afraid to mingle with the littlepeople.

The MEAC consists of nine historically black schools. Theteams have some good guards, some great slashers and very few bigmen. This year's tournament featured one 7-footer. But most MEACteams can put on a full-court press that will make you want tothrow up your arms and surrender.

That doesn't earn them a lot of ink, however. ``We're just not inthe loop,'' says Mitchell. ``Some publications don't even mentionus. Dickie and the boys, they don't even know we exist.'' Indeed,the MEAC final was one of Coppin State's rare appearances on ESPNeven though the Eagles beat LSU and played St. John's down to thewire earlier this season.

The MEAC's record in the NCAA tournament probably has a littlesomething to do with the lack of attention too. The conferencehas never won a game in the NCAAs. It has been an automatic L,an ignominious 0-14 since it began getting an automatic berth in1981. Honestly now, would you give an at-large bid to aconference that has never won a tournament game?

``Look at it this way,'' says Burden. ``Anyone who representsour conference can make history by advancing beyond the firstround and knocking off a top seed.'' The Aggies have certainlyhad their shot at it. This marks the ninth time they haverepresented the MEAC in the NCAA tournament, including a stringof seven straight appearances in the mid-1980s. Only once hasA&T come within 10 points of winning. Last year the Aggies gottheir usual 16th seed and lost 94-79 to Arkansas in the firstround.

``We were just flattered to be there and playing them,'' saysBrice, who scored 20 points against the Razorbacks. ``We gavethem a game, but they ran away with it in the last threeminutes.''

Naturally the Aggies insist things will be different this year.It hasn't helped that A&T is working on its third coach in threeyears, which was one reason for the Aggies' rocky regular season.Last year's coach, Jeff Capel, left to take over at Old Dominion,and Roy Thomas, a longtime junior college coach, moved up to runthe A&T program. The Aggies responded by losing five of theirfirst six games. ``It was a little frustrating, having to gothrough another adjustment period,'' says 6-foot senior guardPhillip Allen, who won the Outstanding Performer Award in the MEACtournament for the second straight year. ``But the four seniorsjust said, `Let's go out and do it.' Earlier in the season wewouldn't have won a game like this, but that shows you thecharacter of this team.''

The Aggies scored the game-winner in vintage MEAC style. With thescore tied with :10 remaining, Allen grabbed the rebound of anill-conceived Eagle three-pointer and threw a behind-the-back passto forward John Floyd, who seemed to leave the floor somewherearound half-court on his way to an emphatic game-winning dunk.Amid shouts of ``Final Four! Final Four!'' the Aggie fans sprintedonto the floor and piled onto their unlikely heroes. ``It allstarts right here,'' said Allen, thumping the left side of hischest with his fist. ``You got to show heart. That's what this isall about. You just got to say, `No one's stopping me.' ''

No one's stopping the Aggies. Not this week. They're MEAC champs,and they're in the NCAA tournament, and it doesn't matter howbadly they get pounded in the first round. It still beats sittingin front of the TV.